Lily Evans and the Year of Change
by Sacred's Thoughts
Summary: Lily has been going to Hogwarts for 5 years now, James Potter has always been irritating... until now... what has changed? Also why is Severus warning her about Remus Lupin and why does Lily still care who he hangs out with?
1. Chapter 1

Lily Evans was a witch. Not in the attitude sense but in the magical sense.

At the age of eleven she had received a visit from a strange man named Albus Dumbledore. He had sat down with Lily and her parents and explained that Lily had a special ability, something that they may have noticed from time to time. Straight away all three of them knew what this man was talking about. He then went on to say that there was a school, which he was headmaster of, specially set up for the training of young witches and wizards and that Lily had been signed up since birth.

Lily had been ecstatic, something that her older sister held against her. Petunia was a jealous sort of person and Lily's new future made Petunia even more jealous. This, however, had little to no effect on Lily's excitement and she counted down the days.

Then when September first finally dawned, Lily arrived at Kings Cross Station, went through the barrier between the muggle, non-magical, train station and arrived on Platform 9 ¾ where she boarded the Hogwarts Express and headed to school. For the last five years she had been taking classes in Transfiguration, Potions, and every other subject that any young witch or wizard should know.

And for the past five years a certain Mr. James Potter had been a pain and a nuisance. Ever since she first met him, when he made fun of her best friend Severus, to the subsequent five years when he took every opportunity to irritate, and laugh at her, he had tried to make her life awful. He was a chaser on the Gryffindor, one of the four houses of Hogwarts, Quidditch team and one of the more popular boys at Hogwarts and both of those lead to being an over-confident moron. However, every once in a while she would catch a glimpse of another person under his confident surface and that left her puzzled and curious.

Currently, Lily Evans lay with her back against her headboard, her mind was spinning and it had nothing to do with the five hours of homework that she had to look forward to this evening. Earlier that evening she had been sitting at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall with her friend Alice when James Potter had come up and sat down across from them. Alice greeted James, but said she had homework to catch up on in the library and left them alone.

"Hey Lily, haven't seen you much yet this year. How was your summer?" He said while he began filling his plate with lunch.

"It was fine, you know, I just worked at my parents shop and tried not to argue too much with my sister. How was yours?" Lily was a little surprised by James' new attitude and the fact that he had actually asked a civilized question, but she decided to take it in stride.

"I went to France for a few weeks with my parents and then Sirius came and stayed for the rest of the summer as usual." He grinned at the last part and then continued eating.

"I heard he's more than staying with your family…" She was unsure if this was a forbidden line of conversation but her curiosity got the best of her.

"Yeah, he had a little of a falling out with his family halfway through the summer. He just showed up at my house. My parents immediately let him stay." James' forehead wrinkled. Lily could tell that he was feeling concerned for his best friend.

"Has he talked to his brother since we've been back?" Lily glanced over to the Slytherin table and saw Regulus, Sirius' brother, scowling into his plate.

"I don't think so. I'm not sure if they ever really got along, but I can imagine it's hard to loss your brother like that."

They had sat there talking for the rest of the lunch break and then had walked together to Charms.

Now Lily was sitting in her bed thinking about how much James seemed to have changed, _Well to be fair I haven't had a truly decent conversation with him until now, _but it wasn't as if she had seen him strutting around the school like he had in other years.

The door being suddenly thrown open brought Lily back to the present, she looked up to see Alice Prewitt and Emmeline Vance, her best friends, stride laughing through the door.

"Lily where have you been I just beat Alice twice in chess and I needed some competition." Emmeline boasted, Alice gave her a joking shove at her comment and then went over and lay on her stomach on her bed facing Lily.

"I just had to be alone for a bit and think," she paused considering the pattern on her quilt for a second and then looked up at her friends. "Do either of you think that James has changed this year?" She instantly regretted asking, their stunned silence made her ears burn.

After a few moments of silence, Alice smiled, "Well I suppose it was about time," she matter-of-factly remarked in an irritatingly calm voice.

Lily gapped at her. "What do you mean?" She managed to ask.

"Don't be mad, but last year after one of our Quidditch practices, he came over and asked me how to win you over and I told him to stop being such irritating child and to be himself around you. I guess he took that to heart." Alice shrugged and waited for Lily to explode.

Trying to make sense of what her friend had just told her, she just sat there_, James still likes me, but is he playing yet another game to get me?_

"Ok well… um… right." Lily swung her feet over her bed and grabbed her book bag before heading out the door.

"Where are you going?" Emmeline called after her, but Lily ignored her and continued down to the common room.

The fire was crackling cheerfully and the couch directly in front of it was unusually empty, so after taking a quick glance around the room, seeing whom she was hoping to see (James) she sat down and pulled out her books. Inevitability a few minutes later she felt the soft plop of another body in the couch and looked up to see James grinning at her.

"Are you working on the Potions essay?" He asked as he pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill. "Because I'm really stuck on how a shrinking potion is supposed to react differently on the summer solstice and why."

"Yeah I was actually going to work on that." She pulled his parchment towards her and looked at what he had started on.

After a few hours of working, and surprisingly getting a lot done, James sighed and stretched his arms. "Lily you really know how to make homework fun," she looked up at him and saw a wicked glint in his eye.

She laughed a bit at that, "well I'm glad I can help out." They sat for a few minutes staring into the fire, not saying anything. Then Lily turned and looked at him again. "I'm glad we are getting along this year, it's nice."

"Yeah it's more relaxing then trying to chase you around and declare my undying love." He grinned and started packing up his homework. "Well I'll see you tomorrow, can't wait for Transfiguration, I hear we're learning non-verbal spells this year."

"Good night." Lily smiled and then sank back into the couch once James had disappeared upstairs. Her heart felt lighter than usual, she wasn't dreading being in James' presence, which until recently had been pretty intolerable. After cleaning up her homework she headed up to her room, thinking to herself while she went that she could get used to James as a friend.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own the world of Harry Potter, it's just fun to write about.**

Chapter 2

The Next morning Lily woke up and remembered the night before. She smiled to herself and started getting ready for the day, Alice and Emmeline were still asleep but Lily was too awake to fall back to sleep. She grabbed her hat and mittens, threw on her cloak and headed off to the owlery.

On the way there she had to avoid Peeves who was drawing mustaches on outraged portraits with a "no-go-permanent-flow" marker. Narrowly avoiding Peeves' unwanted attention, she skipped up the steps to the owlery and found a tawny owl on a low perch. She pulled out a piece of paper and quill and began to write.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I miss you tons, classes have started here and already I can tell that this is going to be a hard year. Being a Prefect has been a little extra work, but I'm determined to live up to Professor Dumbledore's expectations of me. I hope everyone is good, say hi to Petunia for me.

Love, Lily

P.S. Do you remember me telling you about a boy named James Potter? Well I think this year we might be friends.

Lily looked over her letter, frowning slightly at the part about her sister. She knew her sister wouldn't even want to hear that she had said hi, but she wasn't about to give up on her anytime soon. After considering it for a moment longer she rolled up the paper, and attached it to the leg of the tawny owl, which had stretched out his leg for her.

Picking her way back over the floor, trying to avoid the small rodent bones and other messes that were the product of hundreds of owls, she made her way over to the door and down the stairs.

By this time breakfast had started in the Great Hall, so Lily made her way down and found a spot at the Gryffindor table. A few minutes later Alice walked in and joined her across the table.

"Where were you this morning? I woke up and your bed was empty."

"I was just sending a letter home, I haven't sent one since getting here and I thought it was about time." She buttered a piece of toast and set her knife on the edge of her plate.

"Oh, and how was studying last night? I fell asleep before you came back. Did you go down to spend time with James?" Alice leaned towards Lily, keeping her voice low and conspiratorial.

"It, surprisingly, was pretty good. We worked on our Potions essay and talked a bit. It was nice." Lily smiled to herself as she said the last part.

"Good," Alice smiled and nodded, "good, now you both can be friends and it won't be quite as unpleasant to be near the two of you." Alice grinned and started getting her own breakfast together.

A few minutes later loud shuffling followed by three thumps and chorus of grunts announced the arrival of James and two of his best friends, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. All three of them looked like they had just rolled out of bed and James was still rubbing his eyes behind his glasses.

"Good morning Gentlemen." Alice laughed at their dismal appearances and then turned back to Lily. "Did you see that the first Hogsmeade trip in two weeks?"

"Great, I forgot to buy more eel eyes for Potions, I'll be able to restock then."

"And we'll be able to buy some more dungbombs from Zonko's, terrific." Sirius smiled and began loading his plate and then stuffing sausages and toast into his mouth.

"As a prefect I'll have to confiscate those from you Sirius." Remus coolly said from his other side while calmly pouring pumkin juice into his cup.

Sirius snorted and continued cramming food into his mouth.

"Good morning everyone." A cheery voice said from behind them. Emmeline skipped over to the table and slid in beside Alice. Immediately Sirius sat up straighter and after choking down the food he already had packed in his mouth, began eating at a more dignified rate. Lily saw Alice notice too and they glanced at each other and looked away grinning.

Soon it was time for them to head up to Transfiguration. Filing into the classroom they made their way to their seats and Lily noticed that Sirius pushed his way through the crowd so he could casually sit down beside Emmeline. Lily elbowed James who was walking beside her and jerked her head in their direction. James just snickered and winked at her.

Lily walked over to where Alice was sitting and sat beside her, opening her copy of Transfiguration: Grade 6. Professor McGonagall entered the classroom and immediately everyone fell silent waiting expectantly for her to begin.

"Good morning class." She addressed them briskly.

"Good morning Professor." They chorused.

"Today we will be beginning with non-verbal incantations. As I am sure you are all well aware, this is a highly benefical skill and therefore will be expected in most other classes as well. Professor Flickwick may also have mentioned the use of them in class," the class nodded at this, "so you can see we will be expecting this to be a top priority until you have shown that you can adequately cast such an incanation. We will begin by turning in your books to page five where we will be learning about the theory behind non-verbal spells. So if everyone will now turn, we shall begin." For the rest of the class period the class read through the required steps of casting a non-verbal spell and was then told to test out the theory. Most people just sat there, but one boy was unlucky enough to set his desk on fire, when apparently he was trying to make water spout from his wand. After an hour of silence and McGonagall's occasional shushes when someone tried to whisper a spell, the class was allowed to leave and head off to their next class.

In Lily's case this happened to be History of Magic. She felt a presence at her side and saw James striding along beside her.

"Hey Lily, headed to History of Magic?"

"Yeah, I thought you decided to not do it this year?"

"Well, you know, I had some extra time in my timetable so I though 'James what is a noble subject that will benefit me intellectually?' And I realized, 'Why the study of the history of past witches and wizards' and so here I am." He smiled at her narrowed eyes and lengthened his stride slightly so she would have to work to keep up.

"Well as long as I know you'll take it seriously." She sarcastically replied.

They arrived at the classroom and took their seats. Professor Binns materialized a few moments later through a wall and began droning about the history of centaur tribes.

While Professor Binns was still talking Lily felt a nudge on her side and looked over to see James gesturing out the window. Lily spotted a figure with a distinct hunch hurrying into the forbidden forest. Lily would recognize that hunch anywhere, Severus Snape. Severus and her had been friends since before Lily had started at Hogwarts, in fact Severus was the one who told Lily that she was a witch. Then at the of end last year when Severus was being taunted by James and his friends, and Lily had tried to stand up for him, he had spat out, "Mudblood", Lily had been devastated that her best friend could call her something so degrading. And it wasn't even just the world it had been how he said it, and his face while he said it. She would never forget how disgusted he had sounded as he said it, or how his faced had contorted beyond recognition.

Later he had tried to apologize, but Lily knew that deep down he believed what he said, and if she was being honest with herself they had been growing apart the year leading up to that anyway.

James had also apologized for that afternoon, which Lily had promptly ignored, but ever since then he had seemed to change more and more, maybe if had to do with what Alice had said or maybe he was honestly sorry.

Now Lily sat watching as Severus disappeared into the forest, and then her attention was caught again by another figure following him in. She glanced over to see if James was watching too and he nodded at her that he had seen it. _What was Snape up to?_ He should have been in class, and on top of that students weren't even allowed into the forest.

For the rest of class Lily sat hardly hearing a word that Professor Binns said. As soon as the bell for the end of class sounded she grabbed James' sleeve to stop him from rising and pulled him close.

"Don't tell anyone about Snape, ok? I don't want people to get the wrong idea, especially Sirius. Can you do that for me?" She pleaded with her eyes and she saw his resolve slip, he nodded agreeing. "Thank you."

They left the classroom and headed back to the Great Hall for lunch.

For the rest of the day Lily turned what she had seen over in her head, it can't have been what she had thought, maybe he had been sent into the forest as a detention or for a class. But Lily knew she was lying to herself, she had recognized the other figure as McNair, a nasty seventh year Slytherin who enjoyed bullying and scaring the younger students.

Lily hated to see a past friend go down the road that Severus was now taking. She had suspected that he was friends with some of the more nasty Slytherin students, the ones that most people thought would join You-Know-Who after they had graduated, but Lily had always turned a blind eye to it.

Lord Voldemort or as most people preferred to call him, You-Know-Who had been striking fear into the wizarding world for several years now. His group of loyal followers called Death Eaters did his bidding. Killing muggles, torturing innocent witches and wizards and doing what ever they thought would gain them power in the wizard world. A lot, if not all, of his Death Eaters had once been Slytherins. Lily knew that Voldemort was not above recruiting school children and it made her scared and sad for her old friend.

Lily was jolted out of her thoughts during dinner when Emmeline squealed during her excitement over the upcoming Hogsmeade trip.

"Lily we can buy that new acne potion that I was telling you about."

"Oh yeah," She tried to smile, but she could tell by Alice's worried frown that her smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

Alice caught up to her after dinner and pulled her out of the flow of students leaving the Great Hall. "Are you alright? You've been out of it all day. You didn't even bat an eyelash when Sirius purposely burned his finger in Potions so that Emmeline would fawn over him."

"I'm sorry, I just have a lot on my mind." She tried to avoid her friend's eyes, but Alice grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at her.

"Lily, you're not telling me something, whatever it is, you can tell me." Lily looked into her friends blue eyes and the story rushed out. He told her about Severus going into the forest and how she was scared that he was involved in something dark and how she was worried that since they weren't friends anymore there was nothing stopping him from heading straight to You-Know-Who once they were done with Hogwarts.

"Lily," Alice responded once Lily had run out of breath and words. "You had to know he was headed in that direction. It was inevitable. It's just something you can't worry about; you have no control over it. And even if you were still friends, I honestly don't think that would change anything." Lily hung her head and knew that her friend was right, but it didn't make it ay easier to hear.

They climbed the main staircase and headed back to the Gryffindor common room, but for the rest of the night Lily still couldn't shake the uneasy feeling she had.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It had been three weeks since James and Lily had started to get along and as the three weeks went by they had settled into an easy friendship, which, to the rest of the Gryffindors, was a very welcome change. The Friday after they had started to get along Meredith Johnston even came over to Lily and thanked her for the more peaceful atmosphere in the common room.

Fall was now here and the first Quidditch game of the year, which happened to be Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. Lily's new friendship with James and her resulting friendship with his friends caused her to feel more excitement towards Quidditch than she had ever felt towards the game. Usually she just used the extra quiet and time in the common room to catch up on her homework and on the few occasions Alice had convinced her to come watch her, she had been confused by the rules and then unable to follow what was happening.

But now James, Sirius and Remus had made it their goal to educate Lily on the rules of the game and she felt confidant that she would be able to follow and even understand what was going on.

The day of the match dawned sunny and clear and Alice breathed a sigh of relief in the bed next to Lily's.

"This makes my life so much easier," Alice's pleasure showed on her face. And as they walked down into the common room and then on to the Great Hall, the rest of the team and house were equally as cheerful at the pleasant conditions.

They ate quickly and Alice left Emmeline and Lily at the entrance to the Quidditch pitch as she went off to the team dressing room.

"Lily I'm so happy you've decided to come. I like sitting with you so much better than Mary, she always squeals when someone gets hurt, doesn't understand that it's part of the game. But your tougher and now you'll even _understand_ the game." Emmeline grinned and pulled Lily up into the stands into the heart of the Gryffindor cheering section.

They watched as the scarlet-robed figures of the Gryffindor team strode onto the pitch each clutching their broomsticks, followed by the navy robed Ravenclaw figures. At the appearance of both teams, the stands had gone mad, everyone waving their red or navy flags and chanting their house songs.

Professor Gumph gestured for the two captains to shake hands, James, being the captain for the Gryffindor team reached forward and clasped hands with the small brown haired Ravenclaw captain. Then the players mounted their brooms and when Professor Gumph blew his whistle fourteen players rose into the air.

Lily began reciting in her head, what the three boys had been teaching her. _There are three chasers, James is one, Alice is another, and Frank Longbottom is the third. There are two beaters, Sirius is one and Tommy Davis is the other. There is one seeker, little Maggie White. And one keeper Kenton Lehman. There are three balls, the quaffle; which the chasers play with and try to get into the three hoops at the other end of the pitch; this gets the team ten points. The keeper on each team defends these three hoops from the other teams chasers. Then there are the bludgers that the beaters play with, they hit them with their bats to try and interfere with the other team. And finally the golden snitch; this ball was very important, and very small. The seeker had to try and get it before the seeker on the other team got it, but it was fast and hard to see, so this could be difficult. However if the seeker did manage to get it they would earn their team one hundred and fifty points and it would also end the game._

Lily repeated this all to herself and watched at the blurs of the players on their brooms dove and circled each other and passed the large red quaffle between the players. Lily cheered and groaned with the crowd as Gryffindor and Ravenclaw stayed neck and neck at fifty for Gryffindor and forty for Ravenclaw. At one point the crowd gasped as Maggie shot down towards the pitch followed quickly by the Ravenclaw seeker, but one of the Ravenclaw beaters hit a particularly well place bludger and Maggie had to veer out for the way and lost sight of the snitch. The crowd groaned and players who had frozen to watch the chase continued their play and began quicken the pace, a near win causing them to play with more energy.

James clutched the Quaffle under his arm and zigzagged between the Ravenclaw chasers. Alice who was flying just behind him sped up and he expertly tossed the quaffle to her. Alice raced towards the hoops at the end of the pitch, narrowly avoiding a bludger and causing the Ravenclaw beater who sent it at her to curse. She was right in front of the hoops now and just as it looked like she was about to send it flying towards them, lobbed it to James who had materialized several yards from her and who quickly redirected the quaffle into the middle hoop.

The Gryffindor supporters whooped and cheered causing the stand to shake under their feet. Lily was impressed with the Gryffindor team, realizing the James was a good Captain and leading a very strong team.

Just then Maggie began to dive again, this time the Ravenclaw seeker had been at the other end of the pitch and didn't have to the time to get anywhere new Maggie before she pulled herself out of her dive clutching the struggling golden snitch in her hand. The Gryffindors cheered and flooded down onto the pitch. Pounding their team on the back when they touched down and dismounted from their brooms. The tide of scarlet forced the players up through the castle and through the portrait hole into the common room.

The victory party lasted long into the night, somewhere along the way food had been brought up from the kitchens by James and his friends and music blasted while people celebrated. Somewhere around two, the party began to die down and soon only a few stragglers were left sitting around the fire reminiscing about the match.

"And when Maggie pulled out of that final dive holding the snitch…. I mean it was amazing!" Lily's eyes shone as she thought about the exhilaration of the game. "I wish I had understood Quidditch years ago!" Everyone laughed and then continued the play by play of the game.

Soon Lily was yawning and she nudged Alice and told her she was going to bed, she said good night to everyone and then trudged up her staircase and into her room.

Her room wasn't empty though; sitting on her bedside table was a dark owl with a scroll attached to its leg. A breeze gusted through the window that the owl had come through as Lily bent down and untied the string. The owl nipped her slightly as she pulled her hand away and then exited through the open window.

Looking down at the rolled up parchment she quickly unrolled it. All it said was:

_We need to talk – Severus_

Lily frowned and scrunched up the letter; tossing it into her rubbish bin, she started getting ready for bed. She climbed into bed and then sunk low under the covers so she was lying with just her face peaking out. She thought she might know what Severus wanted to talk about, in fact from what she saw a few weeks ago she wanted to talk to him too. But at the same time she wasn't sure she wanted to poke that sleeping dragon again. She had gotten into a rhythm of not thinking about Severus and why drag up old feelings?

Her head felt full to bursting and she had a hard time falling asleep. The rest of her dorm soon came in and fell asleep quickly, but Lily just lay there thinking about what she could say to Severus.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A couple mornings later Lily woke up with a horrible headache. The light, as she pulled open her bed hangings, just made it throb even worse. She groaned and curled up into a ball under her covers. Alice heard her and peaked her head through her curtains.

"Are you alright Lily, you look green?" Lily just hid her eyes from the light and her pillow muffled her next groan.

"Maybe you should go to the hospital wing?" Emmeline stuck her head above Alice's in the opening.

"We can go with you if you want to," Lily nodded with her head still planted in her pillow.

Her two friends grabbed her under the shoulders and pulled her up slowly. Then she slowly opened her eyes so that her head wouldn't hurt so much. They all got changed and then they all walked to the hospital wing.

When they got to the hospital wing they were surprised to see it quite crowded. James, Sirius, Remus, and their little wheezy friend Peter, who Lily always seemed to overlook, were all sitting in beds with bandages wrapped around parts of their bodies and laughing about something they had said before the girls had walked in.

"Lily! Emmeline! Alice!" Sirius called. "What brings you to this fine establishment at such a untimely hour?"

"We could ask you the same thing," Emmeline stared with concern at all the damage that had happened to them. Sirius noticing her concern shifted his blanket so that another bandage on his leg became visible.

"Oh, we're all just clumsy and fell down some stairs," Alice snorted at his response, while the four friends shared a look. "But why are you ladies here?"

"Lily woke up with a headache, so we came here," James peered over at Lily with a concerned look on his face.

Just then Madame Pomphrey walked in holding another roll of bandages and a bottle of healing potion. "What is all this?" Her high-pitched voice caused Lily to wince. "I wasn't under the impression that I was running a social hall."

"Sorry Madame Pomphrey, but Lily has a horrible headache, so we came here first thing." Emmeline maneuvered Lily closer to Madame Pomphrey who immediately pulled out her wand to shine into Lily's eyes.

"Ah, well this is simple enough, though it's good you came here and didn't try to do this yourself. Last week little Jonathon Kempt from Hufflepuff tried to charm his own headache away and managed to modify his memory. Luckily I reversed it but that may not always be the case." As she was saying this she walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a bottle with a brain shaped stopper in it. Pouring Lily a glass, she walked back and handed it to her. "You should be good as new after this. Do you get migraines often?" Lily miserably nodded her head. "Well why haven't you visited before?" Madame Pomphrey asked briskly.

Lily's cheeks turned red and she mumbled something.

"I didn't quite get that dear."

"I ran out of my muggle medicine…" She heard snickering coming from the beds behind her and Madame Pomphrey's stern face made her duck her head and blush harder.

"My dear, I hope I never hear about you using muggle medication again!" She then grabbed Lily's empty glass and disappeared back into her office.

Lily's head had cleared instantly and she wondered why she had never just done this before now. She turned to find six incredulous faces looking at her.

"What?" She said as she threw her hands up in surrender.

Everyone just laughed and Alice and Emmeline grabbed her arms and pulled her back out of the hospital wing. "We'll see you guys later." Alice called back before the door closed.

"Okay," Emmeline immediately leaned in once the door was closed. "What was _that_ about? If they were telling the truth about falling down stairs, then muggle medicine actually works." Alice and Lily were nodding.

"They looked like they had been attacked." Lily chewed on her bottom lip, concerned for her battered friends.

"But they weren't too alarmed about it were they?" The three friends made their way to the Great Hall and plunked down at the Gryffindor table.

"I bet," Lily, said as she scooped eggs onto her plate, "that they were doing some sort of prank and it just got out of hand.

"I dunno," Alice looked thoughtfully into her pumpkin juice, "I think they wouldn't have been quite as happy if they were in trouble, and any prank that left them looking like that would have gotten them into _a lot_ of trouble."

They were interrupted from their thoughts when a small paper bird rammed into the side of Lily's head. "Ow!" She rubbed her head in the spot where it had hit her, mumbling something about just getting rid of a headache, as she bent down and picked the bird up off the floor. Unfolding the note she recognized the handwriting as Severus'.

_When can we meet? – Severus_

Lily had completely forgotten about his letter last night. It had seemed like such a big deal and then she had seen her friends wounded in the hospital wing, and had forgotten all about it.

Looking up she noticed Alice and Emmeline giving her questioning looks. She quickly told them about the owl last night and the questioning looks on their faces turned into frowns.

"Lily, why do this to yourself?" Emmeline reached across the table and patted the back of Lily's hand.

Lily hadn't told either of them about what she and James had seen that day in History of magic and she still wasn't sure she wanted to, so she just told them her other reason.

"I just need to talk to him, and I'm curious about what is so urgent." She quickly scribbled on the back of his note _After breakfast_ then flicked her wand and watched it fly over the heads of the other students in the hall and then whack Severus on the side of the face. The three girls giggled as he sputtered pumpkin juice onto the table in surprise.

"Well I guess I should go out and talk to him." Not wanting to talk in the Great Hall, Lily walked through the double doors, hoping that Severus would see her leave. Sure enough two minutes later she saw him walk out of the Great Hall as well. She jerked her head so he would follow her out of the castle entrance and into the grounds. They walked over to a spot of the grounds with a view of the Whomping willow that had been planted a few years earlier.

"Why did you want to talk Severus," She sighed and didn't look at him.

"Lily do you remember what I said last year after…after–"

"Yes I do," Lily replied sharply, "and you know what my opinion is on that don't you?"

"I remember," Severus looked grim. "Look, I wouldn't even be worrying about it if I hadn't noticed you hanging around James and his lot more, but I think you need to put serious thought into what I'm saying."

"Remus Lupin is not a werewolf, I think you're just spreading malicious rumors. And even if he was don't you think Dumbledore has it under control?" She breathed deeply then continued her rant. "No the reason I said I would talk to you isn't about James Potter and his friends, it's about your friends." Severus looked confused at this turn in conversation.

"My friends, why do you want to talk about my friends?"

"I saw you, a couple weeks ago, walking into the forest with McNair." Severus' face grew stony at this statement. Lily looked him in the eye, but he avoided her gaze and she turned to look again at the willow.

"How is that your business? I thought we weren't friends anymore."

"So then why is James Potter your business," Lily snapped.

"We were just talking, McNair wanted to show me something, that's all." Severus' voice was harsh, but the fact that he even said that much encouraged Lily.

"You don't have to go down that road Severus, you're good, you don't have to end up like Malfoy and Avery who joined You-Know-How right after they graduated." Lily's voice had turned pleading. She saw her friend as the eleven year old that she had loved, her best friend. She wanted him to understand that he had other options.

"This is the road I've chosen Lily, deal with it." His harsh ton snapped her back to the present and she narrowed her eyes at the person that she no longer knew or understood.

"Fine, than you can just keep your big nose out of my business too!" She walked quickly away from him and back into the castle. She saw Alice and Emmeline waiting at the foot of the stairs and she made a line for them.

"What happened?" Alice shot a look at Emmeline when she saw Lily's flushed face and lips pressed into a line.

"Nothing. Let's just get to class." Neither of her friends pressed her and she was glade that they understood her need for silence.

They walked to the greenhouses and then clustered around a small yellow flower.

"Everyone listen up." Professor Cringle waved her hands to quiet everyone down. "Today we will be studying the North American poisonous buttercup. Don't be deceived by the fragile and innocent appearance of this lethal plant. Its nectar is, however, what we will be collecting today. So I'll need everyone to put on their dragon hide gloves and safety glasses." There was some rustling as everyone did as she said, "Good. Now who can tell me what the importance of the buttercup nectar is?"

Lily raised her hand into the air.

"Miss Evans?"

"The buttercup nectar is a crucial ingredient in the newly invented werewolf potion. If caught early enough, the victim of a werewolf bite can be administered this potion, which will then cause him to remain human, at least in mind, during his transformations."

"Very good! Ten points for Gryffindor. Now this of course will not cure someone who has been bitten, just as Miss Evans pointed out, it will only keep their wits about them during their transformations. However if a werewolf has transformed too many times since his original bite, this potion has no effect on him, it needs to be caught early." She clapped her hands together, "Alright, so now I want you all to open your books to page thirteen and follow the step by step instructions in there, I'll be walking around to help."

The buzz of talking broke out around the greenhouse and Alice, Emmeline and Lily moved closer to their flower. Lily flipped open her book to the right page and they began following the instructions.

While they were working Lily began thinking about what Severus had said. Even though he knew his motives weren't innocent he had put the uncomfortable thought about Remus into her head. Maybe that's why they were in the hospital wing, did Remus attack them? No they wouldn't be happy if they had just been bitten by a werewolf. But what other explanation was there?

One hour later, after a nasty burn on Emmeline's shoe when she accidently dripped the nectar on to it, the Class made their way from the Greenhouse and back into the castle, Emmeline left to go to Muggle studies and Alice and Lily headed off to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Are you going to tell me what's been eating at you all morning?" Alice glanced sideways at her friend as the entered their classroom and found their seats.

Lily just shook her head.

"Lily come on, if you can't tell Emmeline and me what's bothering you your going to go crazy." Lily knew she was right, but she didn't want to scare her friend with her suspicions and Remus was a good guy she didn't want he to be hurt by rumors.

"Fine, I'll tell you later." Lily finally decided.

**A/N: Weird place to end it I know, but it was getting a bit long. Sorry I haven't mentioned Peter yet (someone brought that to my attention) it's not that I forgot about him, I'm just not the biggest fan and I wanted a way of added him in the right way. Anyways hop you enjoyed! Review please!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi, so here is my next chapter! I hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 5

Her friends just sat there as Lily told them about her suspicions about Remus. Their faces shifting between shock to incredulity. They were sitting in their dorm room eating Alice's stash of chocolate frogs, but both Emmeline and Alice had stopped when Lily had launched into her story.

"Lily, really? First of all you are getting your suspicions from Severus, and if that wasn't enough add in the fact that the boys were _laughing _in the hospital wing! I'm not sure if your realize this or not but werewolves are not really something the average wizard laughs at." Emmeline shook her head at her best friend.

"Well, yes you are right about that, but… think about what you just said. They aren't really the average wizards are they? They are accomplished pranksters," Lily began ticking off points on her hand, "they have pretty good grads and I've seen Sirius', James' and Remus' advanced spell work in class. Apart from Peter, they are actually pretty exceptional." Both of her friends had to nod in agreement.

"I guess they could have found a way of managing a friend who is a werewolf," but Emmeline still didn't look convinced.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, each processing the information. Lily chewed absentmindedly on a chocolate frog while Alice ripped up a piece of parchment.  
"So we have to find out the truth." Emmeline finally stated suprising the other two.

"How?" Alice and Lily said at the same time.

"Well we have a month before the next full moon, so we have some time to come up with a plan. The three of them might be good with magic, but so are we," she finished grinning.

"We'll start looking in the library tomorrow." Lily said firmly.

Lily yawned and stretched trying to the ache in her back from sitting at Saturday in the library to go away. The three of them had beensearching for the rest of the week and Lily had decided to get to the library early at the start of the weekend so that she would have more time.

She closed the book she was reading, _Where Do Werewolves Wander_, and reached for the top book on the pile on the table in front of her. She was beginning to think it was useless. She had looked at everything, even getting permission from McGonagall to look at the books in the restricted section. But even those books weren't helping. There were no spells to reveal the presence of werewolves, or potions that made a werewolf known or even charms to protect a person from a werewolf if a person wanted to follow it and see it transform. No they were getting to a dead end and Lily was beyond frustrated.

"Hey Evans," the sudden voice behind her made Lily jump about a foot in the air. Turning around she saw James standing behind her. She got up quickly attempting to block her pile of books and the subject she was researching.

"James, you scared me. What are you doing in the library this early?" James had started trying to peek at the books and Lily was trying to casually shift her weight so that he wouldn't be suspicious, but so she could still block him.

"Well, Lily, I guess I could ask you the same thing. What are you researching?" He managed to dodge past her and started picking up the book. "_The Lies and Legends of Lycanthropy_, _Ways and Whys of Wolves, Man or Monster: The Truth about Werewolves._ Just a little light reading Lily?" His words seemed playful, but his voice was forced and when Lily looked into his eyes she could see an emotion she couldn't describe.

"I am doing some extra credit. McGonagall let me." Her lie sounded lame even in her ears, but she couldn't let James know that she suspected his best friend of being a werewolf.

"Oh cause being top of the class isn't enough?" He shoved her playfully, but Lily could still hear an edge in his voice. "Well if you need any help let me know. I'm going to head down to breakfast now though… so I'll see you later Lily." He gave her a tight smile and then left.

Lily sunk back into her chair. She knew he hadn't been convinced, but she had no other choice, and she had to keep researching so she pulled another book towards her and flipped open to the first page. She began scanning the pages. Her eyes flickered over hopefully sections and continued on when they were found to be useless.

Eventually Emmeline and Alice joined her and started scanning books as well. Everyone once in a while there would be a sudden intake of breath and then an exasperated expulsion of air when the reader realized what she was reading was ineffectual.

Soon Lily began to rub her eyes and stretch again.

"Maybe we should take a break?" Alice suggested when Emmeline muffled a yawn with her hand.

"Yeah, I'm hungry. Maybe we should get lunch and then come back up here?" Emmeline had already marked her place in her book and was gathering up her stuff.

"You both go ahead, I want to keep looking." They both shrugged and then headed out of the library.

Lily kept looking, but the longer she looked the more convinced she was that there was nothing that could help them find out except just seeing Remus transform and she was far from thrilled about that idea.

"Are you finding anything?" A voice said from behind her.

Lily turned around and glared at the speaker. Severus was hunched and looking triumphant.

"So you believe me then?" He sounded almost hopeful and Lily saw a glimpse of the boy he had once been.

"I don't know yet Severus," she said sharply, "but some things didn't add up so I thought I'd look into it.

"You won't find it in here. I'm sure Dumbledore has taken all the books that would help you out of the library. He wouldn't want anyone to discover why Lupin is sick once a month or how his cuts never heal. Wouldn't want anyone to discover the truth about him and his perfect friends," he starred bitterly down at her, the corners of his mouth turned down.

"Severus, even if he was a werewolf, he has just as much right as anyone to be a student here." She spoke softly but her tone indicated that the matter was not up for debate.

"Right, anything they do is above reproach, but when it comes to me – "

"Severus." Lily's voice became more forceful. "I don't really want to talk about this. I think we've been over this. Being a werewolf isn't really something you can control. Being a Death Eater on the other hand is." She turned resolutely back to the pile of books on the table. His hand placed a scrap of paper on the table but she kept her head down until she heard of swish of his robes as he walked away. Waiting a couple minutes to make sure he was gone, Lily then reached over and turned the piece of paper over. There was only one word on it, _lunaostendit_. The word didn't seem familiar at all. She decided to pack up her things and find Emmeline and Alice and see if they knew anything about it.

She rushed out of the library and through the castle to the Great Hall. Spotting the blonde and brown heads of her friends she rushed down the table ad sat down. She had just opened her mouth when she noticed whom they were sitting with. Remus and James smiled at her and she quickly closed her mouth and smiled back.

"You look pretty excited about something." Remus noted.

"Yeah," James narrowed his eyes slightly, "what has gotten you so excited?"

"Nothing, it's just a beautiful day. Has me in a good mood." She gestured to the windows, which unfortunately showed a grey sky with a large amount of rain pelting the glass. Her hands dropped to her sides and she tried not to meet either of the boys' eyes.

"Right, beautiful." James drew the words out so they we a lot longer.

"When were you saying Quidditch practice was?" Alice said nonchalantly trying to cover up Lily's blunder.

The two of them started discussing practice times and Lily was able to catch her breath. Emmeline gave her a pointed look but she just shook her head and decided to eat while she waited to talk to her friends.

Finally Remus and James said they had some potions homework that they had to finish and the three girls were left alone.

"So why were you so excited when you came down?" Alice and Emmeline both leaned in so they could speak quietly.

"This." Lily hand Alice the piece of paper so she could read it and then she handed it to Emmeline.

"_Lunaostendit_? Is that a spell or a potion? Where did you find it?" Alice glanced up from the scrap of paper.

"It was just mentioned in a book I was looking at." Lily had already decided not to tell them that Severus had given it to her. She knew what their reactions were and she needed their help to find out what this word meant.

"How will we find it though? Won't it be in a book about werewolves, and we've looked at all those books." Lily sat quietly thinking about what Emmeline had said. The Great Hall was now empty apart for them and it felt lonely without all the chatter that usually filled the room. The ceiling above was cloudy and dreary, reflecting the sky outside, and Lily was starting to feel hopeless about ever figuring out how to discover the truth. Even this lead that had seemed so promising only an hour before was now feeling just as impossible.

"We'll just have to keep searching." Alice's voice was full of determination. But Lily knew that their task was almost impossible. She knew what she had to do and she wasn't looking forward to it.

Later that night Lily found herself sitting in the secret passageway that she and Severus used to meet after curfew. She was playing with the hem of her pajama bottoms when she heard the scuffle of feet and looked up.

"I thought your note might have been a joke," Severus said as he looked down his nose at her, "I'm surprised that you wanted to talk to me at all."

"What's _lunaostendit_?" Lily didn't want to talk longer than she had to. She was already breaking school rules, not to mention she was a _prefect_ breaking school rules. She didn't want to have Filch find them here and she didn't want to prolong talking to Severus for longer than she needed.

"It's a potion."

"For…?" Lily realized she was going to have to drag it out of him.

"It gives the drinker the ability to detect werewolves."

"Really? How?" Lily felt the excitement warm her.

"It will make werewolves unable to touch you." Severus was talking distantly. She could tell that he knew the only reason she was even talking to him was to get information from him.

"So you mean when they transform I could be near him and he couldn't hurt me?"

"No!" Severus suddenly looked alarmed. "Do not go anywhere near Lupin when he is transformed. You must be mad to even think that, he could _kill_ you!" His panic startled her slightly.

"But you said – "

"A werewolf is a werewolf even when in human form, but while in human form, and _only_ in human form, a werewolf is susceptible to a combination of ingredients. _That_ is when you test it. Not during a full moon." His eyes changed from indifference to caring. "The only reason I am telling you this is so that you will get your proof, and you'll believe me. But please Lily, don't do anything reckless." Lily looked away form the emotion she could see in his eyes. It hurt her to see how much he still cared.

"Where can I find the instructions to make the potion?" She said without looking at him.

"You'll find it in _Perilous Potions: A Guide to Advanced Brewing_. Lily, I'm telling you because I know you have the ability to make the potion properly, but it's a dangerous one and it can be fatal." His eyes searched hers when she finally looked into them.

"Thank you." She said quietly, so quietly that she thought he hadn't heard her. But he nodded and then turned on his heel and quickly left her alone in the passage.

Making her way back to her dorm room, she became lost in thought and didn't realize that light ahead of her until it was too late.

**A/N: REVIEW Please!**


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